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Touring East Coast Terrace: Freehold Landed Homes In A Nice, Quiet Setting
Published 24 Sep 2023 |
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13min read
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BY TJPublished 24 Sep 20230 comments | 13min read
BY TJ
TJ's interest in property was sparked after returning from the UK- where balconies are not counted in one's square footage!- and finding that the Singapore property had totally changed in the 7 years she was away. When not reading and watching articles & videos about property, she is busy cooking and baking for friends, family & her blog Greedygirlgourmet
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Today, we’re off on a reader-requested tour of East Coast Terrace. I only took a quick look at its location on the map before heading off, so I thought it would be something similar to the houses we saw near Meyer Road: geographically close to amenities, but still a hassle to get to shops or restaurants. (You have to cross a wide road, etc.)
However, I was really surprised by East Coast Terrace! It’s a small estate, but the roads are so spacious, and there are so many eateries and conveniences within close walking distance! It definitely has a village feel to it – I even prefer it to Frankel estate, which I toured some time back!
So unlike Frankel estate, which has a large through road running through it, East Coast Terrace feels quite secluded (in a good way.) Despite being very close to Frankel (walking distance, in fact) it feels almost protected from the hustle and bustle of the area. Moreover, as you can see in the map above, there is a whole row of shophouses right opposite the estate and a Cold Storage just a stone’s throw away at Siglap V.
In case you’re not sure, the area we’re looking at today is bounded by East Coast Road, Marine Parade Road, Siglap Road and another estate to the left. (There is no vehicular road separating the 2 estates, hence I don’t have a name for it.)
Follow me for a look to see why I’m such a big fan of the area!
Firstly, although pedestrians can access both East Coast Road and Marine Parade Road, cars are unable to. (They can only enter/exit via East Coast Road and Siglap Road.) As such, despite the area having very nice and broad roads, there is not much through traffic so it feels peaceful and quiet.
See what I mean? The roads are HUGE here.I also barely saw any cars driving around the estate, making it a lovely area for a post-dinner stroll. (And, yes, I did see several people enjoying a walk despite the hot sun.)There are many short cul-de-sacs in the area, leading off the two main roads: East Coast Terrace and East Coast Avenue. Here’s one shown above.
As you can see, despite the roads being very broad, there isn’t much street parking available, due to the street markings. I believe I only saw one available space where someone could park on the street. However, the roads never felt claustrophobic, nor were they difficult to drive through (unlike Luxus Hills.)
Nonetheless, you don’t have to worry about parking for your guests, as there is a small open air parking lot at 1 East Coast Road as shown above. That was where I parked – the car park was super empty when I was there (probably because the eateries were not open yet). It’s a very short walk to the houses in East Coast Terrace estate.
In the car park, looking out at the eateries across the road. To the left is a row of terrace houses, which we’ll look at later.There are also a few pieces of outdoor equipment and some seats next to the car park. It was very quiet and peaceful, to be honest. As shown, the houses are pretty close to the car park. I’m standing in the car park looking into their backyards, so they won’t have much privacy if there are a lot of people hanging out in the car park.Walk to the back of the car park, and you’ll reach one of the main streets: East Coast Terrace. As you can see, there are some large semi-Ds here.Looking down East Coast Terrace.There are also terrace houses here. As you can see, there is still room for upward expansion here.The area was also very leafy. Now most of Singapore is quite green, but the trees here were bushy and tall enough to provide quite a bit of shade on a very hot morning.Do you agree with me about the estate being quiet, peaceful and spacious?Looking down another of the through roads. The houses here were pretty large and tall, but because the road was broad enough, they didn’t feel too imposing. (Some estates can feel a bit cluttered when the houses are too big, and the roads are narrow.)As mentioned, despite many houses having quite a lot of parking space in their properties, there wasn’t much space on the street to park.You may find this silly but I also liked how, for some of the streets, there was enough pavement space to walk on. (As shown above, some of the streets don’t have any houses opening onto the street, so the pedestrians can walk unimpeded. In many estates, even when the pavement is quite broad, a house that opens onto the pavement would leave a lot of plants and basically, barang barang, on the pavement, making it impossible for pedestrians to walk on. They would then have to walk on the main road, which can cause a bit of a hassle for drivers.)Love the vintage breeze blocks.If memory has not failed, I’m looking towards Marine Parade Road here.If I turn to my right, there’s another cul-de-sac. Behind this cul-de-sac is Keris Estate. (No road separating Keris estate and East Coast Terrace, so you can’t drive through without going out to the main road first.) Above is the only parking space on the street that I saw.Another thing about the estate: it’s very, shall we say, discovered (by developers).
By which I mean, there are 2-3 rows of terrace houses that have been entirely developed in the same style, as shown above. Whilst there are still many roads with original condition houses, this is the first estate in which I’ve seen many but not all the houses redeveloped, if that makes sense. (For example, at Highgate, most of the houses are in the same original style. Alternatively, at Goldhill, there are many redeveloped houses, but all done in their own fashion. At East Coast Terrace, 2-3 streets have been redeveloped in the same style, making it look more “tidy” but not boring?)
Next to the row of terrace houses I just showed, there is a pair of semi-Ds. Because the exteriors were so familiar, I almost didn’t realise they were semi-Ds!However, unfortunately, the row of houses behind is a bit too close for comfort…Opposite that row of redeveloped units, is this lovely Grand Old Dame. It must be so nice to have a party outside (when the weather isn’t too hot.)It even has TWO gates! I think this is only the 2nd house I’ve seen with 2 gates (for cars.)Walk past it and you’ll see the second row of redeveloped houses. (The white ones to the left.)There was also a house being rebuilt to the right.This house owner definitely doesn’t have problems finding space to park!I really liked this row of houses! It looks so clean and almost Mediterranean. Fully sold out, unfortunately, but you can still see what they look like inside here.For those with the budget, there are also semi-Ds and a detached house. (To be honest, the detached house feels a bit squished in between the terrace and semi-Ds. It’s so squished, that you can’t see it in the photo above. Some people may find that more private though, I guess?)Walking back out to East Coast Road, where the commercial units are.We pass Eastrees along the way, a cluster development which has 8 units. (None for sale at the time of writing but one for rent at $10,000.)And here are the commercial units – and the first cars (being driven, not parked) we’ve seen on this journey!Turn right and you’ll see this through road. There is a row of terrace houses to my right, facing some greenery, with East Coast Road being the greens. These are the closest houses to the eateries and bus stop on East Coast Road, but the downside is that they do get some traffic noise. Not as bad as the estates we visited bordering the expressways, but still a fair bit.Here’s what the houses look like. Some of them have long driveways which can park 2-3 cars!Which is good because, as you can, see you’re not supposed to park along this stretch. (If not, your neighbours won’t be able to drive through!)This is the view of the shophouses you get from the terrace units. It’s mostly eateries, a play school, a taekwondo school, a 7-11, a pet shop etc. There’s also a small mini-mart which is convenient. (But honestly, Cold Storage is really close by.)This yellow statue is so fun! It gives the whole neighbourhood a very quirky feel: imagine strolling to an eatery for dinner in 5 minutes after work, then popping over for a drink before walking back!The hedge facing the terrace houses also gives them ample space to practice their gardening skills without cluttering the sidewalk, which is a nice touch. I love gardening too, but some properties have so many plants, it obstructs you from walking!Very nice house.Sneak peek of more eateries.There’s a bus stop here (and across the street) which serves 7 buses. There’s also another one at the other end of the estate, along Marine Parade Road, so you’re pretty well-connected here. 2 cars parked at the yellow house and still space to spare along the driveway! (Also note how much taller your house can be, if you rebuild.)Oh, this was a sign at the bus stop. I thought I’d share it as a public service announcement.At the end of the houses is this block of apartments, as well as the public car park I mentioned earlier.There’s also a small area to sit in front of the houses, with some outdoor exercise equipment.Isn’t this a terrific place to sit with a book?That’s what East Coast Road looks like. As you can see, still fairly quiet here.Same road, but to the right. (Siglap Centre is just a short walk away.)
I head back into the car park, to get back into the estate.
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Pass a nice open space along the way.There’s this park connector (?) that traverses East Coast Terrace and East Coast Avenue, bringing you all the way up to Marine Parade Road, so let’s go see what it’s like.Looking to the left before entering the park connector.There’s a small condo over that way for those who can’t afford a landed house here.Entered the park connector: this area sure has a lot of outdoor equipment!We pass East Coast Terrace Park.Nice and leafy.Spacious too.Quite a few shaded areas to take a break.There are some houses on one side and an apartment on the other.That’s how close the houses are. I wonder if it gets noisy for the residents?More shaded areas.We reach East Coast Avenue, so I cross it to continue along the park connector.But for the curious, this is what East Coast Avenue looks like.The other side.More houses, this time along both sides of the path.More exercise equipment.The tallest apartment I’ve seen within the estate, I think it’s Fernwood Towers.We’re now at Marine Parade Road!This is the 2nd bus stop that I mentioned previously. FOURTEEN buses stop here: 13, 16, 16M, 31, 36, 36B, 43, 47, 48, 55, 196, 196e, 197 and 853M, so this is definitely one of the better-connected landed estates. It helps that the walk to the bus stop is nice too, making it feel closer than it is!Walking back into the estate. Only this part of the connector has (several) road signs about noise. (The part closer to East Coast Terrace doesn’t have any, I believe.) I wonder if it means this part of the park connector is noisier?Walking down East Coast Avenue now, we see Mosaic Preschool, which was in session when I was there, so I could hear the kids. It wasn’t super noisy but every time there are kids, there will be a certain level of noise, so that’s something to note if you choose a property along this stretch.
Passed a lot more houses along the way, but they looked pretty similar to the ones we saw before, so I will only highlight some of the more unusual ones.
Such as this cool-looking property!Another row of houses done in the same style. I couldn’t quite make out whether it was one big house or a row of terraces. If the latter, I wonder if the houses in the middle have issues driving in and out. (There was only one car in the property when I visited.) There are two gates, but what appears to be more than two houses, so there will be someone stuck in the middle! The parking situation could lead to tensions with neighbours….We’re almost back to where we started, so I’ll end the tour here, as I think it’s a great summary of the estate: spacious roads in a quiet estate with several rows of houses being completely redeveloped (see the right of the photo.)
What did you think of the area? So far it’s my favourite of the East Coast properties I think (I’m a sucker for estates which feel like villages.) The only fly in the ointment that I can think of is the lack of a hawker centre within walking distance – and the prices, of course. At the time of writing, a new inter-terrace here, which will TOP around Q1 2025, was going for $6.8 million, with prices going up to $8.3 million for a corner unit.
TJ's interest in property was sparked after returning from the UK- where balconies are not counted in one's square footage!- and finding that the Singapore property had totally changed in the 7 years she was away. When not reading and watching articles & videos about property, she is busy cooking and baking for friends, family & her blog Greedygirlgourmet
